Henry and Elinor married in their early thirties after Henry finished law school and set up his own practice. Henry often told his clients,”I run my practice and Elinor runs everything else.” As Henry became successful, they decided to have a child and Iris was born. She was named after Henry’s great-grandmother.
After Iris moved back home with her toddler, Elinor became “mommy” again and relished the company of her granddaughter, Elly. Iris worked in a dress shop, Henry his practice and Elinor grew very close to Elly.
Eventually as Elly grew, she got into mischief and, as Henry put it, “needed correction”. Elly was summoned to Papa Henry’s library. It was a scary place for a little girl – dark oak paneled walls and filled with law books. Henry sat behind his large, polished desk while Elly sat in a big over-stuffed leather chair listening to Papa Henry reason with her. There was always room for discussion but not argument.
Henry and Elinor adored Elly and treated her with love, kindness and pride and, in some unfortunate way, as an adult. She perceived herself to be an equal member in a family of adults. Because Elinor spent so much time with Elly, she saw signs of the terrible pain of rejection she carried inside her. When, in her adult years, she rejected her grandparents,they were not only devastated and bewildered but unable to comprehend her feelings of hate against them and her mother, Iris.
When Elly set out to destroy her father, she cut all ties with Elinor, Henry, and Iris and was never seen again. They, she felt, served their purpose and we no long necessary.